5

Bosom Friend

HIRA BANSODE

of the best-known woman Dalit

brought afeminist slant to Dalit poctry along withpoets
Bansode (1939- ), one in
Hira
Marathi, others

Mallika Maarsheikh and Meena Gajbhiya. Born into a Mahar

like
family, a Kamble,in a village of Pune district, she moved to Bombay
child when her ather became a municipal worker. She studied
here
as a up to ninth standard before being married at tlhe age ofi14-15.
father-in-law, she completed SSC and
Encouraged by her husband and
began working as a railway clerk, ajob she still holds, Ir t
then her to take the B.A and M.A.
for
thirteen ycars of endeavour
Marathi.
verse.
Hirabai's childhood love for song tound expression later in
about the struggle for
Her carly love songs soon gave way to poctry
gve voice to the dreams,
caste equality. Her poetry today aspires to
unfulfilled hopes and pain of Dalit women who are doubly oppresscd
like adrum (of Manu] that is beaten at botlh ends.
and continues
Yashodhara':
to be so. Typical are the following lines from her poem
We were brightened by Buddha's light/But you absorbed the dark.
Her tone in public can be fierce and funny, but her poetry tends to
be gentle, inspired by the pocts Daya Pawar, Kusumagraj. Janabai and
Dhyaneshwar. Her three poctry collections, Pournima, Phiyad (1984)
and Phoenix (2001) are highly acclaimed and have received several
awards. Hirabai runs Samvadini, a social and cultural forum tor
empowering Dalit women.

From An Anthology of Dalit Lieraure. Edited by Mulk Raj Anand and Eleanor
Zelliot. New Delhi: Gyan Publishers, 1992. Translated from the Marati
Javant Karve and Eleanor Zelliot.
 Hira Bansode 49

Bosom Friend' from her collection Phiyad (1984) reflects the

down on
expericnce of educated Dalit women. Society still looks
them as of low caste while pretending to treat them as equals.

Today you came over to dinner for the first time

You not only came, you forgot your caste and came
Usually women don't forget that tradition of inequality
But you came with a mind large as the sky to me pocket
size house
Ithought you had ripped out all those caste things
You came bridging that chasm that divides us
Truly, friend Iwas really happy
With the naive devotion of Shabari Iarranged the food
on your plate
But the moment you looked at the plate, your face
changed
With a smirk you said Oh My--Do you serve chutny
koshimbir this way?
You still don't know how to serve food
Truly, you folk will never improve

Iwas ashamed, really ashamed

My hand which had just touched the sky was knocked
down
Iwas silent
Toward the end of the meal you asked
What's this? Don't you serve buttermilk or yoghurt with
the last course of rice?
Oh My Dear, we can't do without that
The last bit of my courage fell away like a falling Star
Iwas sad, then numb
But the next moment I cameback to life
 Soichy
Indvdualand
50 7h water stirs
drppedin
thc up things
Astone
bottom n my mind
Swam up
cmories
DearmvFricnd
So Youask about buttermilk and yoght

can l tellyou?
Whatllow
Youknow. in my childhood we didn't even Ihave mik
buttermilk
yoghurt or
lesscooked on sawdust slhe brought from the
teaMymuch
mother
lumbervard wipingaway thcsmoke from her eyes
awhile we mignt get garlic chutpy.
Eveny once in
Coarse bread
just ate bread
crumbled in water
Otherwise we
Dear Friend-Shrikhand was n0t even a word 1n our

vocabulary fragrance of
My nose had never smelled the
ghee My tongue had never tasted halva, basundi
Dear Friend-You have not discarded your tradition
Its roots go deep in your mind
And that's true, true, true
Friend--There's yoghurt on the last course of rice
Today the arrangement of tood on your plate was not
properly ordered
Are you going to tellme what mistakes I made?
Are you going to tell me my mistakes?

NoTES
Naive devotion of Shabari:
Remembered for her devotion toLord
Rama in the Ramayana, the tribal
naive in its total disregard for woman Shabari's devotionis sel
berries she offered to Lord social convention. To ensure that onethe
Rama were sweet, she tasted each
 Hirs Batsode 51

accepted the hurnble

of them. thus rendering them jootha' He eating jootha
offering.disregarding strictly observed caste laws on
and inter-d1ning.
Chutny-koshimbir: green dhania chutney.

QUESTIONS
reality with
1. Comment on the conflict between expectation and
special reference to the title.
2. Identify the specific form of inequality being referred to in the
opening Iines of the poem.
3. What does the image of the sky suggest in the poem?
4. Comment on the use of the words you folk by the guest to
address her friend.
5. Can we generalize to say that the wTiters who have personally
experienced oppression write differently from those who write
only out of sympathy with the oppressed? Answer with reference
to texts in this section.